“While I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” Levine wrote, in part, “my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before. To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience.”

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In many ways, it will be a return to how we started...

As such, Levine is “winding down Irrational Games as [we] know it. I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two. That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team. There’s no great way to lay people off, and our first concern is to make sure that the people who are leaving have as much support as we can give them during this transition.”

Later, Levine talks about the “new goal” of his trimmed studio: “To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally.”

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That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team.

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 and is located in the Boston suburbs in Massachusetts. Its first game, System Shock 2, came out in 1999, but the studio really made a name for itself with the critically and commercially acclaimed BioShock, which launched in 2007. BioShock Infinite, a continuation of the BioShock series, came out in 2013. We loved it.

Take-Two declined to comment on which employees were affected, and which Levine kept on board.

Our very best goes out to all those affected by this unfortunate announcement.